Walmart has been identified as the company behind a $400 million automated distribution center planned for Cibolo, Texas, northeast of San Antonio. The retail giant was linked to the project, previously known only by the code name Project Theo, after its subsidiary Wal-Mart Stores East LP filed construction documents with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on October 28.
According to the filing, the project will build a 744,433-square-foot automated distribution facility at 3641 South Santa Clara Road, on roughly 126 acres of the former San Antonio Raceway site. The campus includes a 712,500-square-foot warehouse connected to a 31,933-square-foot office building. The facility will feature advanced robotics, automated warehouse equipment, and material handling technology designed to improve the movement and distribution of merchandise through the company supply chain. ESI Group is providing design services.
Construction is scheduled to begin February 1, 2027, with an anticipated completion date of August 1, 2029, giving the development a construction period of about two and a half years. The project is expected to create at least 425 full-time jobs, with wages meeting or exceeding the median wage for the San Antonio metropolitan area, covering positions in warehouse operations, logistics, equipment maintenance, technology, administration, and facility management. A full breakdown of positions has not yet been announced.
Local incentives played a role in attracting the project. The Cibolo city council approved a 75 percent property tax abatement running for 10 years, a 50 percent rebate of the maintenance and operations property tax for five years, and a performance-based sales tax, together worth roughly $32.5 million in tax breaks, according to Commercial Property Executive. The city also established a tax increment reinvestment zone in the area.
The development marks Walmart first distribution center in the San Antonio market, where the retailer operates 38 stores. As of January 2026, Walmart operated 192 distribution facilities across the United States, owning about two-thirds and leasing the remainder, according to a securities filing, including 22 supply chain facilities in Texas. The company owns another 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse in New Braunfels, Texas, along the Interstate 35 corridor, and has filed plans to invest $8 million in renovating that facility, with completion expected in September 2027.
The Cibolo project is part of a broader push to modernize the Walmart logistics network. Earlier this month the company opened a 900,000-square-foot next-generation fulfillment center in Stockton, California, and in Georgia it has announced a 1.5 million-square-foot fulfillment center with construction expected to begin in late 2026. The company said earlier this year that its supply chain spending could peak over the next two years given the scale of its ongoing modernization efforts, and that automating its distribution network is a key element of the strategy, designed to boost productivity and cut shipping costs through better operational efficiency.
The investment in Cibolo reflects a company-wide bet on automation. Walmart executives have previously described distribution facilities that operate with what they say is 99 percent automation, using software, robotics, and automated material handling to move merchandise with minimal manual intervention. The company has said automation improves productivity and lowers cost per unit even as wages rise, and it has tied part of its recent profit growth to these supply chain gains. The retailer generated roughly $713 billion in revenue in fiscal 2026 and employs about 2.1 million people globally, making it one of the largest private employers in the country and a major consumer of industrial real estate and material handling equipment.
The Cibolo location sits in one of the tightest industrial submarkets in the San Antonio metro, with an industrial vacancy rate of about 5 percent as of September, roughly 560 basis points below the market average, according to a Cushman and Wakefield report. Local officials have positioned the project as a milestone for the region along the Interstate 35 corridor, where available land and access to major transportation routes continue attracting industrial investment.
Beyond the 425 direct jobs, local officials and industry observers expect the facility to support additional employment in trucking, third-party logistics, and equipment maintenance, along with temporary construction work over the roughly two and a half years of building. Distribution centers of this scale typically operate around the clock and anchor surrounding industrial development. The former raceway site has been a target for industrial development for years, and the announcement is expected to accelerate interest from suppliers and logistics providers seeking proximity to the Walmart network.
The announced schedule remains subject to change based on permitting, construction progress, and other development factors, and additional details on hiring timelines and the facility opening date have not yet been published. Construction itself is expected to generate temporary work for contractors, construction crews, and equipment suppliers, and the operating facility could create follow-on demand for transportation, maintenance, and logistics-related businesses in the region.
